The Okinawa Times found that the U.S. Army base employee who has been arrested on the charge of attempting forcible intercourse with a woman in her 30s with whom he was unacquainted in central Okinawa had also been indicted without arrest on the charge of theft. The charge was that the suspect had snatched a person’s bag in Okinawa City in August 2020. The Okinawa Times learned this through interviews with those involved in the investigation. The indictment was dated July 2, 2021, according to the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office.

The suspect works at a restaurant inside a U.S. military base. Base employees are subject to the “Status of Forces Agreement,” which stipulates the legal position of the U.S. military in Japan. The U.S. military, however, has refused to receive the prefecture’s protest and requested the prefecture to lodge the protest with the retailer with which the suspect is affiliated. A top prefectural official says that “this is a case for which the U.S. military should come to us to apologize.” The prefecture may react even more strongly to the revelation of the suspect’s indictment without arrest.

According to the public prosecutors office, the suspect approached the victim, who was walking in Okinawa City, from behind and snatched her shoulder bag containing about 7,000 yen in August 2020.

The prefectural police searched the suspect’s house on July 15 on suspicion of assaulting a woman while she was walking in April 2021. During the search, the police arrested the suspect on the spot for pushing away a police officer on suspicion of obstructing an officer in the performance of their duty. The suspect was arrested a second time on July 30 for attempted forcible sexual intercourse.